Wednesday, 9 January 2013

Janine Ashbless: Sexy Stories - Fiction That Turns Me On

Today at Kissing Velvet Towers, I'm delighted that the wonderful Janine Ashbless is taking the reins with her guest post for Sexy Stories: fiction that turns me on, in which she explores Something Dirty....

It’s actually really hard for me to read
other people’s erotica without my inner writer taking over – analyzing the
vocabulary, noting whether the editor has enforced a Safe Sex policy, making
notes about details of the action. I am a hard reader to please – you have to
do something special to get me out of my analytical headspace.

When asked to write about a Story That
Turned Me On, I went to an anthology I bought years back – Luscious edited by Alison Tyler and recently re-issued by Cleis Press with a lovely new
cover.

It’s a strong anthology full of well-written stories all themed around
anal sex, which has been one of my favorite erotic topics for a few years now (I do love
anal in real life, but the fact is, you don’t need to have ever tried a sexual
practice to enjoy reading about it).

The particular short story I return to
is called Something Dirty by Erica Dumas. It’s quite simple in terms of
plot – a female bartender in an upmarket bar hooks up with a client she
fancies, he takes her for a ride on his motorbike, parks up in the middle of
nowhere and they have sex over the seat of his bike – yes, awkward and
uncomfortable, but very hot. It has a happy ending in that it definitely
suggests that this may lead to an ongoing relationship. It’s well-written,
particularly in conveying the narrator’s overwhelming but nervous desire, which
I totally empathise with (I never can suspend disbelief for sex-with-a-stranger
stories where the woman isn’t scared that this is a colossal and potentially
dangerous mistake).

“The yuppies left, I introduced myself and felt a
shiver go through me as I felt his firm handshake; imagined that firm grasp
spinning me around and shoving me against the bar, pulling down my stretch
jeans and entering me in the filthiest way a knight in shining armor could. His
name was Trey. I wanted Trey to fuck me in the ass.”

Which he does, eventually. Hurrah!

Anyway, why this story in particular,
out of this book? It’s not just the fact that for me it hits an authentic and
believable note in conveying female horniness. Or the thoroughly satisfying sex
scene. It’s the description of scary goateed biker Trey.

“He wasn’t your classic Hell’s Angel, which in any
event would have scared me off and prevented me from making a come-on. He was a
computer-programmer, probably, or an advertising executive, maybe even a
doctor. On Monday he would put on a pin-striped suit or a white coat or a Holy Grail T-shirt and fit right in with the rest of
his yuppie pals at work, making enough money that he just had to spend it on a
Harley … If I’d worked in a real biker bar, he would have been one of the clean
ones. But here at Amistoso’s, he was dirty. Filthy.”

It’s like the author is leaning out of
the book, pointing a finger at me and laughing. I just have to laugh along,
blushing. Because she’s hit the nail on the head for me, if not for anyone else:
I like a bloke who looks rough and wild but is actually really smart and
well-educated under that. I’m sorry … it’s just the way I am. It’s not cool,
but I never claimed to be cool.

But isn’t that the way that erotica
works best – a story finds a way of getting under your skin and revealing the
embarrassing little secrets that turn you on but that you don’t want to admit
to? This is a story that does that for me. And I’m very pleased it does.

Janine Ashbless is a multi-published author of erotica
and - occasionally - erotic romance. So far she’s written nine books, published by Black Lace, Ellora’s
Cave, Samhain, Mischief and Sweetmeats. She’s also the co-editor of the
upcoming Geek Love anthology.

She's always
used elements of fantasy, mythology and folklore in her writing, with forays
into horror. Janine loves goatee beards, ancient ruins, minotaurs, trees,
mummies, having her cake and eating it,
and holidaying in countries with really bad public sewerage. She s a roleplaying
geek and can still sometimes be found running round in the woods hitting other
geeks with a rubber sword. It is unlikely she will grow up anytime soon. Janine
lives in England with her husband and two rescued greyhounds, and is trying
hard to overcome her addiction to semicolons.